A new tool for entrepreneurs, investors, and researchers
April 2025
India is one of the fastest growing and most diverse economies in the world, with a population of over 1.4 billion people and a GDP of over $4 trillion. However, finding reliable and granular data on the size and characteristics of the Indian market can be challenging, even for publicly available data. This can make it difficult for entrepreneurs, investors, and researchers to assess the potential and feasibility of their ideas, products, or services in the Indian context. Hence, we built the India TAM model to share an easily accessible view of the market potential – in terms of households or individuals by district. Users can also download the data in CSV or Excel format or export the charts and tables.
Features of the Total Addressable India Market Model
In its first version, the model has the following features:
- Population by District: We have taken the 2011 data, the last official Census and extrapolated it to 2019 and 2024. This covers data for 644 districts
- District Tier Classification: We have classified districts into different tiers based on population size.
- Population by Income groups: We have used iSEC (Indian Socio-Economic Classification) to determine population by income groups. This data is available for 2019.
- For the above, we have provided toggles for you to tweak to determine the population or household by income groups or by tiered districts
Personally, I have used this file for the following:
- To understand which cities to do pilots or studies to test my business case or product-market fit, especially those focusing on extreme ends of income groups (premium and mass products)
- To determine market potential and current product penetration for my startup investments
Future Plans for the Total Addressable India Market Model
The India TAM Model is a work in progress, and we will add new features and datasets in the future. Some of the features that we plan to bring in the future are:
- Latest Census: When completed, we will add the latest census data to the file
- More product and service categories: We aim to add products or services sold by district, to better understand consumption patterns (e.g., Kirana shops).
- More data sources and methods: We are always looking for new and better data sources and methods to enhance the quality and timeliness of the model. We are exploring the use of alternative data, such as web scraping, social media.
- More user feedback and engagement: We value the feedback and suggestions of our users, and we want to make the model more responsive and relevant to their needs and interests. We invite our users to share their comments, questions, and ideas with us, through our website, or email.
We hope that the Total Addressable India Market Model will be a useful and valuable tool for anyone who is interested in exploring, understanding, or entering the Indian market. We believe that the model can help to unlock the immense potential and opportunities that India offers, and to foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and social impact. We invite you to try out the model, and to join us in our journey of building a better and more inclusive India.
Challenges with Existing Dataset
- It doesn’t give a holistic view of the city. That is Mumbai’s population gets broken between Mumbai and Thane districts. Similarly, Chennai’s population gets broken between Chennai and Kancheepuram. We will address them in the future editions of this model.
- Extrapolation of population is done at a very high level (Urban/Rural and ISEC groups) and may not explain the ground reality
Sources:
Authors:
Sandeep (sandeep.v.sarathy@gmail.com)
Shyam (shyamprasadrao@gmail.com)
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